DOBSON — When school ended last week, most teachers packed their main supplies, tidied their rooms a little and prepared for summer knowing they would be returning to the same location in August.

For some teachers and staff members, however, the end of this year brought about a little more work. With two new schools scheduled to open this fall and another school converting from a middle school to an elementary school, there is some unavoidable shuffling of staff. Some teachers at Dobson Elementary, Copeland Elementary, Shoals Elementary, Westfield Elementary and Pilot Mountain Middle schools packed up their rooms in preparation of moving to new campuses. Other teachers in mobile units across the county packed up their rooms in order to move inside the buildings. The new schools will allow the school system to get rid of most of the mobile units that previous overcrowding issues made necessary.

While teachers had to deal with packing up everything and maintenance and custodial staff had to contend with moving everything from student and teacher desks to filing cabinets into school gyms and onto moving trucks, everyone is excited about the prospect of being in a different space this fall.

“It’s exciting,” said Misti Bartley, a kindergarten teacher who is moving from Dobson Elementary to the new Rockford Elementary. “It’s been challenging at times, but it’s definitely exciting.”

“I’ve been very pleased with the process,” said Robert Draughn, head of maintenance for Surry County Schools.

Staff involved in the moving process believe that the transition would not have been as smooth as it was if not for the help of other staff members who are staying put and other volunteers.

“Everybody’s been working together. The ones not moving are helping the ones that are,” said Bartley.

“Everybody’s just helped each other. We’ve had a lot of volunteers come in and help and a lot of the kids from the Early College came and helped,” said Greg Shores, member of the maintenance staff at Dobson Elementary. “If it hadn’t been for the volunteers and the teachers coming together, we wouldn’t have made it.”

Teachers started the packing process before the end of school, packing a little bit each night and only leaving out essential materials. On the last day of school, with the help of everyone, it took only a few hours for each school to get everything that will be moved to a new school into a central location, usually the school gymnasium.

At Dobson Elementary, every teacher that was in a trailer was in a classroom inside the school by Monday afternoon after school dismissed on Thursday. They had even begun hanging things on the walls and preparing for the fall.

“We don’t want to open school tomorrow but we probably could,” said Principal Jan Varney.

Getting rid of so many of the mobile units, most of which have been sold or are on lease and will be returned to the manufacturer, will help the sense of community on campuses. Every teacher will be under a roof and staff will be able to lock outside doors during the day which will improve safety.

“It used to take me an hour and a half to walk campus. Now, I can walk it in 30 minutes,” said Varney. “Not having trailers will help our safety. We’ve had an open campus for years. Now it will be nice to lock the doors and say we’re all under one roof.”

Pilot Mountain Middle School staff are facing a unique situation this summer as their campus is in the process of being converted to Pilot Mountain Elementary School. Because of all of the construction, the staff is stationed in a wing of East Surry High School for the summer.

“We have found that after about the first hour of getting everything set up, it’s actually been not all that bad,” said Holly Whitaker, assistant principal at Pilot Mountain Middle who will be moving to Meadowview Middle School as the principal this fall. “The staff at East Surry has been wonderful. We’re operating in a little hub.”

Summer school is in full swing for the middle school at East Surry and report cards and other paperwork is still available for pick-up from room 30.

“Anybody that’s ever moved knows it’s a big job. There were challenges, but the staff met them with a good attitude. They know if you’re going to get a new building you’ve got to pack up your things,” said Whitaker.

Pilot Mountain Middle School staff and students also had to contend with some construction towards the end of the school year, mostly on the outside of the building. The staff and the construction crews found a way to work together to ensure the crews could accomplish what they needed to and the students were not disturbed.

“It worked out better than we thought. We had to close one of the main walkways, but the students picked up on that really quickly,” said Whitaker. “We had testing days where they could not do any construction, but we told them when we were done. I think we worked really well together.”

The thought of moving to new facilities has many teachers excited, but they were still sad to see the last day of school roll around as they will be leaving behind familiarity. Some teachers from Dobson Elementary will be joining teachers from Copeland Elementary at the new Rockford Elementary School along with a number of students from each school. The Dobson Elementary staff made sure the last day of school was special and took time to say their good-byes.

“This has been my home school. Ms. Varney was the first one to give me the opportunity to teach so it’s sad to be leaving,” said Bartley. “But it’s going to be a great opportunity.”

“We decided that we’re just sister schools. We’re so close that we’re just helping each other out,” said Varney of Rockford Elementary, noting that staff created a video with footage of teachers moving to the song “I Will Survive.” “We all got our tears out. Many of us have been together for 13 or 14 years. But then everybody came back and laughed and cut up.”

The process of actually moving furniture and boxes began the last day of school. As of Tuesday, Draughn said crews had finished moving everything from the old middle school campus to the new Pilot Mountain Middle School where it is being stored in the gymnasium. Crews also were finishing up with moving furniture out of the mobile units at Shoals Elementary School and to the new Pilot Mountain Elementary School.

“Over the next three days, we’re focusing all our attention on emptying all the mobile units at Shoals and Westfield and moving things to Pilot Mountain Elementary,” said Draughn. “Next week we’ll start sending the mobile units back to the company which will put the schools back to their original design.”

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.